As it turns out, besides giving you false expectations about real estate, a bunch of TV homes also have another thing in common: a colorful, crocheted,"granny square" afghan, a style that initially became popular in the '70s. As Slate investigates, this type of blanket made its first TV cameo at least as early as the late '80s, when it appeared on Taxi, a sitcom about NYC cab drivers. Since then, the granny square blanket has featured prominently on the '80s-'90s sitcom Roseanne, as well as Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more recently, Jane the Virgin.
Based on Slate writer Laura Bradley's discussions with several set designers behind those shows, it appears the blanket wasn't blindly copied from show to show. Instead, there is really just something about it that says so much.
One set decorator says it has "great texture, color, and lots of character;" another explains it has an ""implied sense of history" (aka, comes off as "a sentimental talisman gifted by a grandparent.") Get the whole story on Slate.
· Why Do TV Characters All Own the Same Weird Old Blanket? A Slate Investigation. [Curbed]
· 8 of Television's Most Iconic Fictional Rentals, Ranked By Outright Disbelief [Curbed]
· All Set Design coverage [Curbed]